as taken out of the general classification in schedule I, which admitted paintings to free entry if imported as objects of taste and not for merchandise or sale. Of course the two designations of " glass, colored, stained, or painted," and "paintings on glass," in schedule C in that tariff, must have been construed as referring to different articles. The tariff of 1857 simply provides, in schedule I, for "paintings and statuary," without the qualification affixed to those terms in the tariff of 1846; and it is contended that that classification, so unqualified, must be held to embrace "paintings on glass," and that they are thus transferred from schedule C in the tariff of 1846, to schedule I in the tariff of 1857. Supposing such to be the legal construction, it would only transfer to schedule I " paintings on glass," leaving still in schedule C "glass, colored, stained, or painted." The effect of dropping in the tariff of 1857 the qualifications prescribed in the tariff of 1846, was to admit, free of duty, "paintings and statuary" for whatever purposes imported, but it is still a question for construction as to what is to be regarded a "painting" within the meaning of the law. It surely cannot be held to be the intent of the law to admit every article painted free of duty, but the term "paintings" must be confined to what are usually denominated "works of art" or "objects of taste," whether imported for sale or otherwise. The article in question is understood not to be of that description, and is subject to the duty of 24 per cent exacted on the entry. I am, very respectfully, HOWELL COBB, Secretary of the Treasury. AUGUSTUS SCHELL, Esq., Collector, &c., New York. UNFINISHED PEARL KNIFE HANDLES. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, March 81, 1859. SIR-I acknowledge the receipt of your report, under date of the 8th instant, in regard to the appeal of Messrs. E. V. Haughwout & Co. from your assessment of duty at the rate of 24 per cent on an article described as "unfinished pearl knife handles." The article in question is pearl sawed into the proper form for knife handles, and partially polished. It is claimed by the appellants that the pearl is converted into that form merely for the convenience of transporta tion, and should be treated as unmanufactured, and be subjected to a duty of 4 per cent under the classification of "mother of pearl" in schedule H. The Department is clearly of the opinion that the material imported in this form must be treated as a "manufacture" of pearl within the meaning of the law, and that the duty was properly assessed by you at the rate of 24 per cent under the classification of manufactures of bone, shell, horn, pearl, ivory, or vegetable ivory," in schedule C of the tariff of 1857. I am, very respectfully, HOWELL COBB, Secretary of the Treasury. AUGUSTUS SCHELL, Esq., Collector, &c., New York. BILLS OF EXCHANGE. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, August 10. SIR-I have to call your attention to the following regulations, viz. :-Bills of exchange drawn by United States consuls are occasionally presented at this Department for payment by holders whose rights are derived from indorsements, not made by parties to whom such bills have been duly made payable, but by other persons claiming to act for such parties by procuration, without producing the power of attorney or other authority for the transfer of the property in such bill of exchange out of its lawful owner. The accounting officers, who are bound to see that no person receives money from the treasury but by lawful title, cannot recognize such indorsements, unless on competent proof of their sufficiency, which, in the absence of the power of attorney, may be made by a bond of indemnity in double the amount of the sum claimed, executed by two sufficient sureties. I am, very respectfully, HOWELL COBB, Secretary of the Treasury. NAUTICAL INTELLIGENCE. PILOT ACT OF NEW ORLEANS. AN ACT TO AMEND THE LAWS RELATIVE TO PILOTS FOR THE PORT OF NEW ORLEANS. SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Louisiana, in General Assembly convened, That the number of pilots for the port of New Orleans shall not be less than fifty. SEC. 2. Be it further enacted, etc., That no person shall hereafter be appointed a pilot unless he be a lawful voter of the State of Louisiana, and be recommended to the Governor by the Board of Examiners as being duly qualified as a branch pilot of the port for which he applies. SEC. 3. Be it further enacted, etc., That if any vessel inward or outward bound, to or from the port of New Orleans, shall employ as a pilot any person who is not a duly licensed branch pilot, when a duly licensed branch pilot offers, the said vessel, her captain and owners, shall forfeit the sum of one hundred and fifty dollars, with privilege on said vessel, to be recovered before any court of competent jurisdiction in the name of the Charity Hospital of New Orleans, onehalf for the benefit of said hospital, and one-half for the use of the public schools of the Eight District of the Parish of Plaquemines. SEC. 4. Be it further enacted, etc., That all vessels inward or outward bound, to or from the port of New Orleans, except those of one hundred and fifty tocs or under, from Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida, which shall come in and go out free, refusing to take a branch pilot when one offers, shall be liable to the branch. pilot thus offering for half pilotage, recoverable with privilege on said vessel before any court of competent jurisdiction. SEC. 5. Be it further enacted, etc., That any branch pilot piloting any vessel safe from sea, and giving satisfaction, shall have a preference in piloting her out to sea again; provided he, or a pilot from the same association, be in readiness and offers his services before the vessel gets below the boarding station at Passa-l'Outre, or the pilot station at the other passes; and this preference shall be granted by the commander of the outward bound vessel, under the penalty of one hundred dollars, recoverable with privilege on the vessel, for the benefit of the same parties, and in the same manner as provided for by the first section of this act. SEC. 6. Be it further enacted, etc., That it shall be the duty of the Board of Examiners of the port of New Orleans, to report to the Governor any neglect of duty, drunkenness, habitual intemperance, carelessness, incompetency, or general bad conduct on the part of any branch pilot, showing that said branch pilot ought to be removed or suspended, and it shall be the duty of the Governor, if, upon due inquiry, such report be well founded, to revoke or suspend the commission of said branch pilot. SEC. 7. Be it further enacted, etc., That the master of any vessel having cause to complain of the misconduct of any pilot, whilst on duty on board of said vessel, may go before the master and wardens of the port of New Orleans, and on statement made upon oath, of the cause of his complaint, it shall be the duty of said master and wardens to forthwith transmit a copy of the same to the Governor, who, if he deem it proper, shall cause a thorough investigation to be had of the said causes of complaint by the Board of Examiners, and upon revision, approval, or rejection of their award, the Governor may either acquit, remove, or suspend the pilot so accused. SEC. 8. Be it further enacted, etc., That any commissioners and members of the Board of Examiners, neglecting or refusing to perform their duties as such may, upon written complaint and statement signed by an absolute majority of the duly commissioned branch pilots of their cause of complaint, be removed from said office of commissioner or dismissed, and his place filled by the Governor. SEC. 9. Be it further enacted, etc., That the duly licensed branch pilots of the port of New Orleans may, for the furtherance of their interest, form themselves into one or more voluntary private associations. SEC. 10. Be it further enacted, etc., That the privileges granted by this act shall expire, unless enforced, within 30 days after the vessel having incurred any of the penalties decreed by this act shall have returned to the port of New Orleans, but in case the said vessel shall have been absent more than one year, the said privileges and rights of action shall be completely extinguished. SEC. 11. Be it further enacted, etc., That sections 7th, 11th, 13th, 15th, 16th, 19th, 20th, and 21st of an act relative to pilots, approved March 13, 1857, and an act entitled an act relative to pilots, approved January, 1859, be and the same are hereby repealed. SEC. 12. Be it further enacted, etc., That upon the passage of this act the Governor shall revise the Board of Examiners, and they shall be continued in office at his discretion, and removable at pleasure; the said Board of Examiners being subject to all of the penalties, and possessed of all of the privileges, enumerated in this act. SEC. 13. Be it further enacted, etc., That this act shall take effect from its passage. Approved, March 14, 1859. SELF-REEFING SAILS. The mode contrived by Mr. Cunningham, of reducing the area of the canvas by rolling the sails upon the yard-the yard being fitted to turn round on the fixtures for that purpose-is generally known. In his invention, he employs the gravitation of the yard and its appendages to produce the necessary rotation of the yard by the action of the chain or halyards, in the bight of which it is suspended, and which, being hoisted upon, or enlarged-one end being a fixture -produces a rotation of the yard, thus constituting the operation a self-acting one. If Mr. Cunningham had not discovered this principle, the necessity of applying manual force to the rotation of the yard would have been a serious obstacle to the attainment of the desired object. The arrangement of Mr. Cunningham's system of self-reefing to the working of the topgallant sails, in such a manner as to dispense with the use of royals, is a valuable feature. He employs a deeper topgallant sail for that purpose, which, although not containing the collective area of the topgallant sail and royal together, by being carried up square at the head, and entire in its area, gives a powerful propelling sail, and is as effective as the two sails on the old plan. This large sail can also in a moment be reduced to a close reefed topgallant sail of the smallest size, and the weight of the royal yard, with all its gear, is dispensed with. TEREDO OR SHIP WORM. The United States Nautical Magazine publishes a paper read before the National Institute, at Washington, by James Jarvis, Esq., who has been engaged since 1849 in a series of experiments concerning the toredo or ship worm, by order of Commodore Smith, chief of the Bureau of Yards and Docks. In order to ascertain the best composition for resisting the attacks of the teredo upon wood, he painted a number of blocks and boxes with various compounds—some he left unprepared, and some partly painted—and sunk them in Elizabeth River in the month of April. "About the 12th June the blocks and boxes were generally lifted and examined, but he never was able to discover any of the animalcula (young teredo) until about the 20th of June. At this period of the year he generally discovered minute holes in the wood by the use of a magnifyingglass. After this, the creature daily grows ahead, for it has no powers of locomotion; it grows like an oyster, and has a calcareous or shelly sheathing. which adheres to the surface of its burrow." In Norfolk Harbor, Virginia, they grow from six to twelve inches in length, and from three-eighths to half an inch in diameter. The wood excavated by one twelve inches long, in a season, amounted to more than a cubic inch, if in a solid piece. No signs of the teredo were discovered by him in wood deposited after. Mr. Jarvis supposes that the teredo commences to develop about the 1st of July, and continues until cold weather arrives; in Charleston, South Carolina, and further south, they develop during the whole year, whereas in the colder blasts. such as in the harbors of New England, they do but little injury, because the worm is feeble there, being like a fine thread; it is believed to be a native of the torrid seas. The teredo is not so destructive on piles sunk under water at New York city docks as those on the opposite side of the river, on the Jersey and Long Island shores; this is owing, Mr. Jarvis thinks, to the amount of filth carried down in the city sewers. So much for the good offices of dirt. In Boston and Portsmouth, New Hampshire, harbor, piles will stand twenty-five years. One open nail hole in a sheet of copper, upon a vessel's bottom, will allow the worm access to pursue its work of destruction. All kinds of wood used in shipbuilding are attacked by it. To secure the bottoms of ships from the salt water worm, and from coral deposits, Mr. Jarvis recommends putting three coats of white zinc paint on the dry bottom of the vessel, then copper them; and to make the whole invulnerable, put three more coats of white zinc paint upon the outer surface of the copper. To preserve piles, drive them with the bark on. There is no danger while the bark remains. The barnacle on piles does no injury. Charring is excellent, provided the fissures are well filled with hot coal tar or zinc paint, which will be found excellent to keep the shell fish from the wood where piles may have the bark broken off before being driven. THE NAVIGATION OF THE BLACK SEA. The London Morning Chronicle remarks : Surprise has been expressed that vessels going direct to Sebastopol take a smaller cargo than if they were only going to Constantinople, or that they diminish their cargo in the latter port before entering the Black Sea. The reason is this-the density of the water of different seas is more or less considerable, and the vessels sink in the water more or less, according to their density. The density arises from the quantity of salt contained in the water, and, consequently, the salter the sea is, the less a vessel sinks in it. As, too, the more sail a vessel carries, the deeper she penetrates the water, it follows that, the more salt the water, the greater is the quantity of sail that can be carried. Now, the Black Sea being sixteen times less salt than the Mediterranean, a vessel which leaves Toulon or Marseilles for Sebastopol must take a smaller cargo than one that only goes to Constantinople, and a still smaller one if it is to enter the Sea of Azož, which is eighteen times less salt than the Mediterranean. It is known that the Mediterranean is twice as salt as the Atlantic, once more than the Adriatic, five times more than the Caspian Sea, twelve more than the Ionian Sea, and seventeen times more than the sea of Marmora. The Dead Sea contains more salt than any other sea; it is asserted that two tons of its water yield 589 pounds of salt and magnesia. 500,000 50 100,000 138,488 64 1856..Great Western Ins. & Trust Comp... 500,000 50 222,800 276,253 03 1856..Howard Insurance.. 500,000 100 299,314 57 TAXES PAID BY INSURANCE COMPANIES OF CINCINNATI. The Ohio State House of Representatives passed a resolution requesting the several County Auditors to report, as soon as practicable," the amount of taxable property listed by the foreign and domestic fire and marine insurance companies doing business in the State, and the actual amount of taxes paid by each," for |